Sweet and Sour
by Moodle McDoodle
Summary: Doc Patchingo has been on Piñata Island for two years now, and he thought at this point he knew what to expect, even from Dastardos, grim reaper of sick piñata. But Patch always felt curious about his rival, who doesn't seem to be the same as the other Sours. Then the doctor finds evidence that this might be more true than he thought... (Redo of "The Doctor and the Reaper")
1. WHACK!

**(A/N) Hey guys! For those who've read my other work, welcome back! For those who haven't, feel free to skip this note. **

**I just wanted to clarify that my first two chapters of this have technically in one form already been posted, under the title "The Doctor and the Reaper." I have since edited and updated the first two chapters and rather than simply adding these edits to the old version of the fic, i wanted to start fresh now that i have renewed confidence in where this fic is going! I highly recommend you still read these chapters even if you've read the old ones, Not only is it overall written in a way that now flows well, sets up the rest of the fic better and has better interactions, but the second chapter also has an entirely new scene! I am ALSO releasing a completely new chapter along with these rehashes, so don't worry about there being nothing new. Thank you for reading and i hope you all enjoy! 3**

** (This fanfiction has been cross-posted on AO3) **

* * *

It was a normal, sunny morning on Piñata Island, and the villagers were up bright and early ready to start the day.

Doc Patchingo quickly gulped down the last of his morning cup of tea, before running to grab his doctor's coat from the coat rack, in a rush to get working as soon as possible.

Another day of healing sick piñata across the local gardens.

That is, he sure hoped he'd be healing sick piñata, as long as HE didn't get to them first… But Patch was up and awake quicker than usual today, and feeling determined to get through the day without losing a patient!

The doctor hopped into his little peddle car and drove it outside onto the path, rushing down it to get to the first garden on his list.

Today was already unlucky for the local gardeners. Three had called him soon after he woke up saying they had awoken to find one of their piñata had gotten sick during the night.

Patch was heading to the nearest garden first, it was only just down the path after all, and the gardener had left a voice alert before Patch was even awake.

That garden was also the most at risk, because it was right next to…

When he arrived at the edge of the garden he could already hear familiar, eerie humming.

Dastardos, who was floating out from behind the curtains of his hollow tree home across the garden, his glowing eyes even creepier than usual in the tree's shadow.

Patch made eye contact with him for a brief moment, and felt his adrenaline level spike. They both knew they were headed for the same thing, it was just another race to see who would get there first.

Patch could see the gardener, a young woman with short, ginger hair named Laura, was crouched over the poor patient. She glanced between the doctor and the reaper with a worried expression as they both got closer.

Patch hurried over to them, peddling as fast as he could. The piñata was closer to Dastardos' side of the garden, but maybe if he was just a little quicker...

As they both closed in on the piñata, Laura saw how close Dastardos was and panicked. Her gardening shovel suddenly appeared in her hands, she swung at the reaper and-!

Dastardos suddenly turned transparent.

WHACK!

… They were too late.

"Easy come, easy go!" Dastardos shot Patch a lopsided grin as his long scarf snatched up the buzzenge's life candy from the pile of broken paper mache and candy.

Laura was shivering behind him, shovel still in hand. Instead of being hit, Dastardos had just kept floating straight through her to the piñata, like a ghost.

He turned to her. "Guess you'll need another buzzenge if you want an eaglair to visit now!"

Both Patch and Laura just watched tiredly as Dastardos cackled like a particularly unhinged Halloween witch, turned transparent again and sunk right into the ground

Doc Patch sighed, already very used to this outcome.

"I'm s-sorry, I should have g-got here earlier… Are you okay?" He gently asked Laura. It was bad enough losing a piñata, but Patch knew from experience that being phased through like that wasn't a fun experience. (Not to mention mind-boggling to Patch in particular. It went against everything he knew about physics!)

She gave him a weak smile. "I'm fine… it happens, especially with him right next door, I'm just lucky I haven't lost more piñata to him…"

Patch could tell she was still shaken, but as much as he wanted to stay and make sure the gardener would really be okay, it was more important that he go to his next jobs and make sure it won't happen again.

"S-still, I'm sorry it has at all… I have t-two other jobs to get to, I'll s-see you l-later!" He said as he started to peddle his car away in the direction of the next garden.

Laura waved. "Good luck!" She called out after him, then sighed to herself.

She looked back over at Dastardos' tree, forever looming over her garden, and thought...

* * *

Patch's next job was at a small family owned garden, but the patient was actually a house-kittyfloss, one of Patch's regular patients.

He drove up to the door of the house next to the garden and knocked. it was quickly answered by one of the daughters of the family, Moodle, carrying the sickly pet in her arms.

Thankfully, there was no sign of Dastardos this time, and the doc was able to do his job quickly and leave for the next garden with a friendly wave at Moodle and no issue.

The third and, for now, final garden belonged to Bear A. Maracas, a boy with a garden full of fizzlybears.

It was one of the furthest away gardens he got calls from, nestled in a fir tree forest near the Piñarctic. He had to drive quite a way through the jungle path towards Piñata Central to get there.

The good thing about that though, was that Dastardos was less likely to show up far from his home by Laura's garden! He'd have to float all the way through the Dessert Desert and further to get here.

So, feeling quite optimistic, Patch felt that despite the bad start, things were going to go right today! He was just starting to see Bear's garden and there was still no sign of-

Patch screamed when suddenly a figure with glowing eyes appeared in his path. He quickly swerved his car to avoid a crash, but ended up crashing right into a fir tree instead.

Dastardos cackled, twirling his piñata bat.

"You really are too easy," he mocked, before turning transparent and floating through a different tree (as if to make a point) as he made his way to the garden, "what, too much of a coward to just drive through me still?"

"I've t-told you before I'm not going to just t-treat you like a g-g-ghost - it's not polite!" The doctor huffed as he started reversing his car. Dastardos repeated the words under his breath in a mocking imitation of Patch's stutter, but Patch ignored him.

He knew that this distraction had given the reaper a chance to get closer to the garden than him, despite floating a lot slower than the doctor drove, and Patch started to panic, rushing to get going again more quickly.

As they raced to the garden, Patch was easily able to spot the sick fizzlybear, along with Bear himself, who seemed to be with his friend Eddie Lizard.

Eddie was handing Bear a shovel that the doc immediately recognised.

Being the kid of one of the more well-off families in the area, Eddie was of the few people that could afford to buy the only thing that could actually touch - and hurt - Dastardos. The Dastardos Shovel… and now Bear has it.

If Dastardos was worried it didn't show, it never did… Sometimes Patch wondered if Dastardos was ever afraid...

The reaper was still ahead of him despite his best efforts to catch up, but suddenly, Bear charged at Dastardos with the shovel right when it looked like he was going to reach the fizzlybear first, and the doctor knew Dastardos' lead wouldn't last long now...

Patch looked away before before Bear reached him, and winced when he heard the sound of the hit landing. He focused instead on just reaching and curing his patient.

He heard another WHACK as he reached the piñata and pulled out his medicine bottle, trying hard to ignore the fight going on behind him… He knew Dastardos needed to be stopped but the violence of times like these was always a bit much for him.

A spoonful of medicine later and the fizzlybear immediately peeked up, vibrant colour returning to its paper. Patch smiled wide, happy to have helped another piñata. He turned to tell Bear the job was done and-

WHACK!

…Thud.

Patch froze, mouth hanging open in shock at the sight he saw as soon as he'd turned around, he hadn't ever realised it was even possible, but…

Bear had swung one last powerful swing of the shovel into Dastardos' head, and the reaper collapsed out of the air, completely unconscious, landing on the ground with a light thud.

Before Patch could react, Bear dropped the shovel and rushed over to him.

"Is Teddy okay?!" He frantically asked, and Patch was a little startled at how quickly the teen could switch from furiously wielding a shovel to worriedly fussing over his fizzlybear.

"Um, y-y-yes he is, b-but did you really have to-!"

"Thank you so much, Doc!" Bear cut Patch off, charging past him to pull his fizzlybear into a big bear hug. Patch smiled a little at the sight, who was he to judge how a gardener protects their beloved piñata?

Still… Patch frowned again as he turned to the reaper… Dastardos had always seemed so indestructible, but now… he just looked small and hurt…

Eddie, who had been hiding rather unsuccessfully behind a fir tree during the commotion, cautiously approached and went to pick his special shovel off of the ground.

"Eugh!" Eddie shrieked and dropped the shovel as soon as he picked it up. "What is THAT?!"

He was pointing at some kind of black goop that was covering the blade of the shovel, and Patch crouched down curiously to get a closer look. The substance looked thick, sticky, it smelled sour and…

And there was a trail of it leading to the wound on Dastardos' head. Patch startled, and behind him Eddie gasped as he came to the same conclusion.

That was Dastardos' blood

The doctor's mind raced. How? Why? Had he seen this before and just not realised? Usually he's so focused on doing his job…

Eddie scampered back over to Bear, wanting nothing to do with the horrifying sour blood, but Patch just stepped closer to get a better look, both fascinated by and incredibly concerned for his rival.

As he looked over the wound he couldn't help kicking himself for never wondering just how injured Dastardos got after getting in these shovel fights, what kind of a doctor was he?!

He bit his lip and glanced over to Bear and Eddie, they didn't seem to be paying the doctor and reaper any mind, maybe he could…

Acting quickly, Patch got up and wheeled his car over to the unconscious Dastardos. He reached inside and pressed a button he didn't get to use very often, and a moment later a stretcher on wheels popped out of the back of the car.

Giving Eddie and Bear one last glance to make sure they still weren't paying attention, Patch very carefully began to lift Dastardos onto the stretcher, trying not to get distracted by how eerily light he was, even for someone of his size…

As soon as the reaper was secure, Patch hopped into the seat of his car and sped away in the direction of the clinic.

Even people like… whatever-Dastardos-is deserve to be healed.


	2. Inhale

Dastardos suddenly shot awake, gasping a deep breath, as if he hadn't breathed in a while. He probably hadn't.

His head hurt... Badly.

As his mind caught up with what his horrible eyes were seeing he realised that Doc Patch was right there, staring jaw-dropped at him and holding his wrist, almost as if checking for a pulse.

Dastardos scowled and yanked his hand back, immediately on the defensive. Why the hell was Patch here?! Did he get dragged back to the clinic?! Seeing his nemesis' face first thing after waking up was NOT what he wanted to happen today. Or ever!

"What are you doing?" He hissed venomously, and the already nervous doctor flinched back. _Good_.

"I-I was helping you..." Patch defended, his panicked expression dropping into a concerned frown, "are you o-okay? When I checked your pulse-"

Dastardos cut him off. "I don't need help!"

The snap caused Patch flinch again and Dastardos took that as his cue to leave, he was sick of this place already. But a mittened hand pushed him back down onto the tiny clinic's single bed. Dastardos tried to phase through Patch's hand, but only flickered before he lost concentration.

"W-Wait! You can't leave y-yet, I haven't even treated your w-wound!" the doctor protested, getting even more... well, just plain _irritating! _

Dastardos just glared at him as he tried again to phase, successfully turning transparent with only a small wince, and tried getting up again. He phased right through Patch's arm, who gasped at the sensation and pulled back his hand.

As soon as he was upright though, a sharper pain shot through his already aching skull, and his vision clouded as he started to feel lightheaded. Fuck, he was really injured this time, huh?

He must have stumbled because Patch reached out to steady him. He tried to slap his hand away but this time the doctor wasn't deterred and managed to gently push him back down.

"There, s-see? You're in n-no st-state to go flying off!" Patch said with a worried smile. a _pitying_ smile.

Dastardos was FURIOUS. First that annoying fizzlybear kid knocks him out with one of _those_ shovels, and then Patch _pities_ him, so he gets stuck at his stupid little clinic?! No doubt this'll become the village's next big thing to gossip about too...

Patch had moved to gather some things from around the room but Dastardos could easily tell the doctor was glancing at him every few seconds. He huffed.

...What was that Patch said about his pulse earlier?... Dastardos listened for his own heartbeat and couldn't hear it. Shit... It made no difference to him what his heart did, but if Patch didn't hear it... Thankfully he didn't seem to have realised the implications.

He looked up again when Patch started to come back. Dastardos saw what looked like a damp cloth, a roll of bandages, and a small bottle of something that he assumed was some kind of disinfectant. Patch must be planning to clean and bandage his head wound...

"Don't you dare!" he growled when Patch reached out, and he stopped moving, but annoyingly didn't back off. Since when was this wimp so stubborn?

"B-But you're still bleeding..." Patch weakly pointed out, before cautiously reaching for his skull again, slowly this time, as if Dastardos were a feral piñata that could attack at any moment... Which, he could.

But the reaper just glared at him as he considered his options. Patch took his silence as an invitation instead of a warning however, and moved even closer, about to pull his mess of hair away from the injury.

Dastardos reflexively grabbed his wrist the moment the gloved hand touched his hair, holding it in place with impossible strength, his grip so tight that Patch whimpered in pain.

"Don't. You. Dare." He growled again, more intensely than before.

"B-but-"

"It'll heal quickly on it's own anyway!" He added without thinking, and very nearly regretted it. Dastardos didn't want Patch to know anything about his accelerated healing! but if it got him to leave him alone...

Patch paused, frowning as he thought about what he'd just said... Dastardos hoped he would actually listen this time, he preferred Patch when he was a pushover! Did he just not fear him as much after seeing him so helpless? Ugh, another reason to escape as soon as possible.

"W-well... I can still make you m-more comfortable-" Dastardos scoffed "-while you h-heal at least!" Patch eventually said, backing off with a wide, nervous smile.

"D-do you need anything? A blanket? An e-extra pillow? Food? Water?" Patch froze."W-Water! I'll get you a glass of water." And before Dastardos could even process everything he'd said, Patch left the room, and he could hear running tap water a moment later.

"Finally..." Dastardos muttered, ignoring the pain and dizziness as he forced himself to float up out of the bed, and turned himself transparent before he could clumsily knock half the rooms medical equipment over. Instead just clumsily floating _through_ the various equipment.

And as soon as his vision cleared enough to see, he was out through the closest wall...

* * *

Patch sighed as he put down the glass of water, taking deep breaths trying to calm himself down.

Of course Dastardos would disappear the second he looked away, what was he thinking? Was he even thinking? He was still feeling the adrenaline rush from Dastardos scaring him...

He sat down, quite unprofessionally, on an empty counter, closed his eyes and tried to remember the soothing words of his yoga instructor. _Inhale... Exhale..._

Patch had gotten used to Dastardos scaring him over the past two years, but this was different, he hadn't even been conscious. Or breathing. That was the really scary part - especially when Patch checked for Dastardos' pulse and couldn't feel a thing.

Just when Patch was thinking about grabbing his stethoscope just to make sure, Dastardos had startled him again.

Dastardos suddenly sitting up in the bed with a big, horrible gasp as he'd started breathing again had made Patch jump... But that wasn't as bad a scare as before, in fact it was more relieving than anything. He was awake again! And breathing! Thank goodness... Patch has never lost a patient before, (when he got there first,) especially not a human one...

Not that Dastardos seemed happy to be awake, and especially not happy to see him... He just immediately went back to being cold towards him...

(Cold... That was another scary thing, just how cold Dastardos' skin had felt!)

But now the reaper was gone, the only things left in his wake being the scattered spots of his fascinatingly black coloured blood and the stench of sourness still clinging to the air. The latter of which, was making it extremely hard for Patch to do his breathing excercise without feeling the need to cough.

...Huh, the smell was stronger here than his brief experiences with Ruffian blood...

He opened his eyes, peeking through his hair at the spots of blood leading from his car to the bed.

It was the wrong colour as well. Ruffian blood was green. But then, Dastardos had the wrong eyes to be any sort of ruffian anyway, so looking back he should have guessed that his blood wouldn't be the same...

_What was he?_

Patch sighed and tried to clear away the bubbling questions in his mind before he could get carried away. If this morning had taught him anything, it was that Dastardos wouldn't accept his help anytime soon...

Mind made up, he got off the counter and went straight to his cleaning supplies closet. He couldn't just leave all this blood everywhere, it was a safety hazard! And he could be called out to leave for a job anytime!

Not to mention the possibility of his little sister looking for him and finding all this... She couldn't handle normal blood, let alone _this._

Equipped with cleaning supplies (along with extra protection, just in case the substance was toxic! Sour things often were...) he reached to begin whiping the spots of blood from his floor, but something stopped him.

He stared down at the tar-like blood, frowning behind his hair. He thought about seeing Dastardos knocked out and bleeding, of him having something wrong with his heart...

He thought of him being not... quite... _human_...

* * *

As soon as Dastardos pulled open the curtains in the entrance to his tree and floated inside, he was greeted by a loud, excited mess of green eyes and red paper fur.

Floating past the crowd of excited sour piñata trying to get his attention, he went to a set of shelves carved into the inner tree wall next to his fireplace and cauldron.

Getting back home had been a pain. His already bad vision kept swimming and he was floating unsteadily. He could have sworn that awful _Laura_ had given him weird looks... He made a mental note to get revenge later.

The sours calmed down a bit as he began rummaging through a shelf of bottled potions, recognising that he was busy. Though some were still whining for attention, and he had to swat away a particularly rowdy sherbat.

Dastardos quickly found the potion he was looking for and pulled the cork out before drinking the whole thing at once. Almost instantly, he no longer felt dizzy. Heh, he'd like to see Patch's medicine do that!

His head still hurt though, and he could still feel his tarlike blood oozing down his neck, but that problem was nothing some time and some rest couldn't fix.

Turning around, Dastardos saw a few of the sours had laid down to rest in a pile on the floor.

He did have a tattered hammock hanging high above him, which he usually settled in to sleep, but the pile sounded like a much better idea right now.

As he practically collapsed on top of a snoring mallowolf, the rest of the sours decided that whatever he was doing, they wanted to do too, and before he knew it he was completely surrounded by piñata settling down to rest with him.

Shifting so he was more comfortable, he pulled a sweet out of his pocket, the buzzenge life sweet he'd taken from his neighbour's garden earlier.

He unwrapped it, and had to push away a greedy macaraccoon trying to sniff it over his shoulder before popping the sweet in his mouth.

He savoured the flavour. It was like a lozenge that, with that medicinal cough sweet effect and a taste of dry, sunny skies.

Dastardos didn't eat, not normally at least... He wasn't like Pester, he didn't do what he did out of greed... But being whatever-he-was he needed a very particular diet.

And life sweets had a magic that nothing else did, after all.

He kept his eating habits a secret. He didn't want any gardeners knowing any more of his weaknesses... Or Patch, for that matter.

Rolling over as he chewed the sweet, Dastardos closed his eyes. As he started to fall asleep he absentmindedly noticed that he'd stopped bleeding, and that the pain in his head was getting smaller and smaller...


	3. Crreeaakk

Penny Patchingo almost looked like she was about to eat her sketchbook, with her face close to the page and her tongue stuck out. She carefully traced patterns on the block of colour she'd painted, until it looked just like the lily pad she kept peeking over her book at.

She was sat in her usual spot, on the side of a fountain in the middle of the village, and wearing her usual outfit, a cheerful blue sundress with soft yellow leg (and arm) warmers, a frog themed mask and her blond hair in a ponytail.

A lickatoad hopped up from the murky old fountain water onto the lily pad Penny had just finished doodling, and she began to add the frog pinata to her sketchbook page of small, colourful nature studies, grabbing her paintbrush and creating a vaguely lickatoad shaped blob of blue paint on the page (the lickatoad was a normal green colour, but she'd just used green for the lily pad!)

She kept drawing little things from around the fountain like this until she had a two page spread of colourful drawings in her sketchbook, and sighed. Still no sign of her brother...

A second lickatoad, this one _actually_ a blue variant, hopped up next to her as she began to bounce her leg impatiently. Patch was supposed to meet her here for lunch! She'd packed lunch for them both and everything... He was either going to turn up much too late, or send her an alert saying he'd eat later...

She pulled out her alert system to call him, just when she heard the distinctly squeaky wheels of the only peddle car in the village driving up the path towards her. She lit up, her worries forgotten for a moment, Patch actually showed up!

Shoving her sketchbook and art supplies back in her bag as quickly as possible, she got up and ran over to her brother, jumping to hug him just as he was clumsily standing up and out of the car, nearly knocking him right back into it! Patch didn't mind, he just laughed and returned the hug as soon as he regained his balance, leaning down to reach her better.

"I was just about to alert you," she said, pulling back to glare up at him. "I thought you were going to be too busy again!" She was trying to look annoyed but, being an impossibly adorable fifteen year old, Patch wasn't affected.

"I'm sorry," he said with a gentle smile, "I th-thought I was on time t-today!"

Penny yanked up Patch's sleeve to reveal a watch on his wrist, shoved his arm up to his face so the digital clock on it was right in front of his eyes.

"We agreed to meet up at one!" She tapped on the front of the watch "that was half an hour ago!"

Patch's smile turned sheepish. "I g-guess I was pretty distracted..." Even though Penny couldn't see his eyes, (and he couldn't see hers,) she could tell he wasn't looking at her.

She let go of his arm and said sadly "yeah, yeah, you're busy with work, I know..."

Her brother felt a pang of guilt and rushed to reassure her. "It w-wasn't just work this time! Something h-happened with D-Dastardos earlier and-"

"Him AGAIN!" Patch jumped when Penny cut him off and threw her hands in the air. "That evil bully, when will he leave you alone! He's the only reason you're so busy!"

The doctor shuffled his feet and looked down. "N-No he wasn't that b-bad today, it was just..." He stuttered, and if Penny didn't know her brother better she's think he looked guilty. "It w-was weird, that's all... It's f-fine!"

Penny frowned up at her brother behind her hair, making a long "Hmmmm..." sound as she made up her mind about whether or not it really was fine.

When Patch maintained his it-might-not-be-fine-but-I-promise-it's-fine smile against her frown, Penny gave in with a sigh.

"Okay... let's just eat before you have to go out on another job!" She said, snatching his hand and dragging him back towards the fountain where she'd left a picnic basket.

They ended up settling down in the grass by Patch's clinic (the fountain was in the middle of the village, and therefore, right next to nearly every building in it) and were happily sharing out the food from the basket: A sandwich each and a large bottle of homemade lemonade that Penny had prepared earlier.

"Oh yeah!" She said, remembering something. "You asked the gardeners for some fruit too like you said you would, right?"

"U-Uhm..." Patch stammered, cheeks going pink.

Penny stared at him...

"PAAATCH!"

* * *

Patch tossed and turned in his bed, too anxious to sleep.

It was late that night, Penny had long since retreated to her part of the house (an additional room, that was kind of haphazardly thrown on top of the roof over Patch's studio apartment, which was on the second floor above his clinic) and Patch had been trying to sleep for at least an hour now.

But he couldn't. He felt restless, like his mind was still reeling over everything that had happened that morning, and every time he felt like he might drift off his mind thought up yet another question, and had to resist the urge to write it down.

He kept trying to sleep for another ten minutes before he finally gave up and rolled out of bed with a sigh. Patch started to move in the direction of the bathroom, where the cabinet his sleep meds lived in was, but something pulled him instead towards the stairs down into the clinic. Something calling to him...

Patch let out a sharp "Ow!" sound as he walked through the dark straight into his bookshelf, hitting his knee. Using the power of hindsight, he then pulled out his alert system and turned it's flashlight function on, to prevent further accidents.

Shuffling downstairs out of his apartment and into the clinic, he could almost feel the tug through his reception area into his office and straight towards the cabinet at the very, very back.

He turned on a nearby lamp, so that he could put down his alert system, and reached for the cabinet door...

Patch shivered as it opened with a _**Crreeaakk. **_

This was where he kept anything relating to personal research. He had notebooks full of questions about the more nonsensical things on the island, books on ruffians that weren't Piñata Central approved, a life sweet he'd been too scared to study, despite his curiosity...

But Patch's eyes immediately snapped to the latest addition to his small collection of questions.

He stared at the small vial of Dastardos' blood, and felt a pang of guilt. He didn't feel good about taking a sample without Dastardos' knowledge... especially since he bottled it while cleaning the toxic substance off of his floor.

(For this, he'd used his most heavy-duty cleaning supplies, to keep it from not only contaminating his clinic, but staining the floor. This wasn't even mentioning that the bedsheets and pillow had to be thrown out entirely, and that he'd made a note to go see the mechanic in town during the next few days, to make sure there weren't going to be any lasting effects on his car.)

Patch should probably get rid of it. Or at least just go back to bed.

_But..._

He reached to grab the sample, then stopped himself. He reached again, and hesitated again. He almost grabbed it the third time, but held himself back.

Frustrated at his indecisiveness, Patch sighed. He kept staring at the blood sample...

Before he could stop himself again, he quickly snatched the vial. Or tried to, as he clumsily knocked it out of the cabinet.

Patch scrambled to catch it, but as he fumbled it kept slipping out of his hands and flying further away.

In his panic, he tripped, and fell with a loud clattering sound as he knocked things over and a startled shriek, still reaching out for his precious sample.

As Patch's body slammed into the hard floor, the vial finally landed gently in his hands, just in time.

He held his breath, silently praying that the loud sound hadn't reached Penny's room... _Or anyone else, _said the irrational part of his brain.

When no one showed up to ask him what he was doing, and the room went back into silence, Patch breathed out with relief and carefully pulled himself to his feet. He was still holding the blood sample gently in his hands, and suddenly he was too tired, and excited, to feel guilty. He knew he couldn't sleep until he had at least _one _of his questions answered. Thats probably why he had the urge to come down here in the first place...

Patch brushed aside the fact that though the questions would keep him awake, so would the answers.

After through his desk drawers, Patch found a spare empty slide for his microscope and very carefully (though perhaps not following all the safety regulations he should have done) put a few drops of the blood into it. His adrenaline spiked and his heartbeat quickened as he put the slide into the microscope, took a deep breath, and peered into it.

He found more questions than answers.


End file.
